Monday, October 8, 2012

Baseball or no baseball, the weather has suddenly become very
"autumnesque" here in Crabtown. Time to throw the furnace switch and
drag out the quilts for bedding. Gosh, we're almost to the flannel sheet
stage. But my collection of vintage electric fans will remain in view
even when the snow begins to fall.
I can't help it. I like
looking at them. In fact I like them so much that this summer I spent time doing paintings of
them. Some are labeled with familiar names like
General Electric, Westinghouse and Peerless but others call themselves
Zero, Eskimo and Polar Cub. Some are working and some are too unsafe to
plug in. Here are a few of the paintings inspired by my whirring cast-iron and metal companions.

"General Electric" oil on canvas ( 20" x 16")

This modest little fan (above) was my first and it's the one I use every warm day in my studio.

About the Artist

Charlene Clark Studio
I've been a collector of vintage ephemera and objects all my life. It is an obsession that apparently I am forced to address. Additionally I've been a practicing artist for more than half that amount of time. The paint provides the means of expression I need to convert these collections into personal images... meaning that I need to see these things that no longer exist and make them my own with the paint. Much of the work is based on memory and imagination...often times we really cannot tell the difference.